neves@uwai.UUCP (12/03/85)
Does anyone know how the new megabyte Apple card works? Since it does
not plug into the auxiliary slot it looks like it is not similar to
the Ramworks card. Because it works on the II+ I assume that it has
some firmware that one can use to make requests for chunks of memory
(like 256 byte chunks). Is this true? Does it have any hooks for
other processors?
--
David Neves
Computer Sciences Department
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Usenet: {allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,uwm-evax}!uwvax!neves
Arpanet: neves@uwvaxralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) (12/05/85)
In article <317@uwai.UUCP> neves@uwai.UUCP writes: >Does anyone know how the new megabyte Apple card works? Since it does >not plug into the auxiliary slot it looks like it is not similar to >the Ramworks card.... The IBM PC community seems to have their act together more than we do, with the Lotus-Intel-Borland extended memory spec. Why can't there be a hardware/software standard for addressing more than 64K and 128K of memory? Does Apple plan to do anything about this except hope that third-party vendors adopt the 'standard' embodied in their card? - Ralph
kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) (12/06/85)
In article <317@uwai.UUCP> neves@uwai.UUCP writes: >Does anyone know how the new megabyte Apple card works? Since it does >not plug into the auxiliary slot it looks like it is not similar to >the Ramworks card. Because it works on the II+ I assume that it has >some firmware that one can use to make requests for chunks of memory >(like 256 byte chunks). Is this true? Does it have any hooks for >other processors? > >-- >David Neves >Computer Sciences Department >University of Wisconsin-Madison > >Usenet: {allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,uwm-evax}!uwvax!neves >Arpanet: neves@uwvax For answers to these and many other questions, I once again put in a plug for "Open-Apple", the best magazine for the money ($2 an issue). It's small but packed with info, no adds. In Vol. 1, No. 11 (December '85): "As mentioned here in October (page 73), Apple's card uses an addressing scheme that is completely different from any other card on the market. . . . You read from or write to Apple's card by peeking or poking byte 49283+(SLOT*16).(In hex that's C083+S0, where S is the slot number). You can transfer a sequential group of bytes between the card and memory faster than you can tranfer the same group from one part of memory to another. This is because hardware on the card automatically increments to the next byte. Your program just keeps peeking or poking at the same peephole. A disadvantage with this scheme, however, is that it's impossible to run a program while it's on the card. Programs must be moved into main memory first. This isn't a major disadvantage, however, since it's _almost_ impossibler to run a program stored in multiple auxilory memory banks, too. . . . As simply a storage device, Apple's card is very clever. You can tell the card what byte you want to appear in the peephole by placing that byte's address in 49280-49282 (+SLOT*16), low byte first. It uses any standard slot except slot 3, which means it works with a II-Plus as well as a IIe. It won't interfere with interrupts as auxiliary-memory RAM cards sometimes do. Nice card. Too bad the auxiliary-memory cards have already set a standard in this area." Also, on the subject of //c's, here's another little tidbit from "Open-Apple": "Th UniDisk 3.5 upgrade enhances the Apple IIc. the upgrade, which is free to purchasers of teh UniDisk, involves a motherboard change. The new board has 32K of ROM where before there was only 16. In addition to the machine language code needed by the UniDisk, the ROM includes more commands for the IIc serial ports (including the XON/XOFF protocal that was previously missing, as discussed here last month on page 84). After an upgrade, the ports are closely compatible with Apple's Super Serial Card. The new ROM also includes a miniassembler, like the enhanced IIe. . . . The unused cassette switch at $C028 toggles the two 16K banks of ROM on and off (see May, page 39). No switch is available to read the current bank status, however. The traditional ID bytes for the new ROM (see May, page 40) are the same as the original IIc. You can tell the difference by looking at $FBB3. An $FF ther indicates an original IIc, a zero indicates a 32K ROM. There's lots of magic in the UniDisk connection, too. It's really more than that. Apple's documentation call it CBUS--it's a non-standard high-speed serial connection for "intelligent" paripherals. Peripherals become intelligent when they have a microprocessor and software in them. Subsciber Tom Vier has discovered that inside each UniDisk 3.5 there's a 6502 microprocessor, ROM, RAM, and one of Apple's IWM chips. The CBUS interface appears to allow up to 127 devices to be connected to an Apple II in a daisy-chain--including character-oriented devices such as printers and modems. Isn't that interesting?" I think it is. I mentioned a while ago that when I was playing with one of Apple's very own //c's I got the message "AppleTalk not connected". Now I think I see why. It seems to me that //c's are going to be Apple's main connection to the Mac. I know that AppleTalk can accept up to 65535 different devices, but that because of software, it could take several minutes to get a unique identification number. I guess that Apple decided 32 was too small a number and 127 didn't take too long. Another tidbit of romour I hear is that the Mac System is getting closer and closer to ProDos. Remember SOS? Looks like Apple has something similar in mind. Apple also looks like it's going to reduce proces on //e's and //c's. They should be about: $945---64K //e w/ extended 80-column $995---//c with b/w monitor $1245--//c with color monitor. I assume $1195 for a //e with ex-80-column & color monitor. also, $299 for the 256K RAM II Apple will sell more memory for $69 per $256, making 1meg $506. You could do it a little cheaper yourself. (these prices from, you guessed it, Open-Apple!) The //e was the best selling computer in the US retail computer stores in September (IBM was a paultry third...:-) ). Well, enough informative quoting of Open-Apple. If you're interested in recieving it, write: Open-Apple P.O. Box 7651 Overland Park, Kans. 66207 U.S.A. Source Mail: TCF238 CompuServe: 70120,202 Sean Kamath UUCP: {ihnp4,teklds,decvax,ucbcad}!tekronix!reed!kamath Disclaimer: All quotes from Open-Apple reprinted without permission (I doubt Tom Weishaar [pronounced "wise-ar"] will mind, especially with all my plugs for the magazine [Really a newsletter :-)] ;-) ). I have no connection whatsoever with Open-Apple, am not payed by them, nor are they in any way responsible for anything I shall ever write about/to/with/including them or whatever they write about etc. Reed and I have a harmonious coexistance right now, and they shouldn't suffer from my ramblings, either. (-: All spelling errors are my own.
faubel@apollo.uucp (Ken Faubel) (12/06/85)
I have one of the new "Apple Extended Memory Cards" and I am very impressed. Apple did
the right thing when the choose to put it into a regular ][, ][+, //e card slot. Even
though I have a //e, I am pleased to see the commitment to the older machines. The new
card has 32 RAM sockets of which 8 come filled with 256K chips for $299.00. For about
$75.00 (mail order) you can populate the rest of the board and have a full megabyte. The
card also has a large chip carrier with what looks like a 64 pin package in it. This
handles the address decoding and the firmware. For most purposes it looks like a PRODOS
block device. As for the operation, it supports DOS 3.3, ProDos, and Apple Pascal
(version 1.3 only).
From DOS 3.3 all you do is type IN#n where n is the slot number and the card is set
to work like a RAM drive. DOS 3.3 can only use 512K according to the manual. To use
the RAM drive just refer to it as drive 1 in slot n.
To use PRODOS all you have to do is use the formatter on slot n and away you
go. The signature byte shows that it is a PROFILE device. After loading the system
files into the card I typed PR#4 (my card is in slot 4) and in less than two seconds
it was waiting for input.
I am waiting to get the new Pascal system so that I can load the entire operating
system onto the card and not have to wait for the disk any more.
There are interfaces to the card that let programs like Appleworks use the RAM
directly but this is not specified in the small manual that came with the card. I
have also heard rumurs about a 68000 card due out from Apple that is supposed to
access the memory on this card. (There are no external jacks or plugs on the card
so all access must use the slot interface to the mother board.)
Has anybody else heard about a 68K product or a //x machine.
Ken Faubel decvax!wanginst!apollo!faubelralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) (12/09/85)
In article <2a905ed0.4237@apollo.uucp> faubel@apollo.uucp (Ken Faubel) writes: ... > Has anybody else heard about a 68K product or a //x machine. All I've heard about the next Apple // is that the case will be the same color as the //c. A 68020 coprocessor card would be nice, but it won't mean much unless they provide a sensible bitmap graphics mode with it. Maybe an Apple // with a 680x0 processor, Unidisks & Hard disk, a sensible bitmap and a few Meg of memory will be another of the 'future Macs' Apple's talking about. That would be a machine work buying, since I could run Apple //, Mac, and probably even Unix applications on it... (And with z-80/HD64180 and 8088/80286/80386 coprocessor cards, I could even run CP/M and MS-DOS applications. Talk about disk format nightmares!) - Ralph